On November 1st, 2024 we started our return to Florida. We left Michigan around 6:00am. It was a balmy 45° and we were excited to get back to the sunshine. We stopped in Nashville, Indiana for some window shopping and lunch. It was a trip down memory lane, for me. Growing up in Indiana was a strange enlightenment. I never felt at home. The people who live there seem forced to ‘drink the cool aid,’ or risk being ostracized. Nevertheless, I learned many lessons that have helped me become who I am today.
A note to those living in Indiana, or other midwestern areas, if you’re feeling like there’s more out there than your judgmental little town/circle, follow your gut, it is exactly right! I left when I was 23 and with the exception of a brief 2 year work related move, I haven’t gone back. However, if you leave, a word of warning, it’s hard to go back without being judged even more harshly. I would recommend not moving anywhere else in the midwest. The towns and cities seem to have all the same layouts, and similarly, narrow mindedness. But I digress.
After our stop in Nashville, Indiana, we decided to stop in Nashville, Tennessee, for the night. What a great time! We spent the evening downtown listening to music and dined at Miranda Lambert’s BBQ restaurant. It was a lot of fun! It had been roughly 20 years since I’d been to Nashville. The last time I was there, in 2006, I recorded an album and the studio I recorded in was, thankfully, still there, on Music Row. Wow, Nashville has turned into a thriving metropolis! We visited the Bluebird Cafe’ where I played long ago, and where so many major songs have been discovered. It’s a songwriters paradise. Since I had lost my Bluebird t-shirt, I bought another one, and thankfully, they hadn’t changed the style. At this point, the trip only had one small near-death experience, a spare tire apparently ejected from a truck a few cars ahead of us and the truck following it hit the tire, sending it bouncing toward us. Linda was driving and she instinctively navigated around it with precision.
The next day we got back on the road and headed south. From city to city, gas prices bounced back and forth from around $3.19 to $2.69 a gallon. But, we stayed focused on the warm sunshine that had us shedding our sweatshirts. We finally made it Florida and started seeing the signs of the 2 hurricanes that had plowed through the area. It had been a couple of weeks since the latest one, Milton. The devastation was still daunting. Billboards snapped off at the ground, trees uprooted, entire forests laid bare, business signs stripped and buildings destroyed. When we reached Clearwater, we got our belongings situated and took a drive to the beach. Even at night it was almost unrecognizable. The obvious trauma of the storms was still very raw. Trash and debris lined along the streets, along with mountains of sand that had been piled to sift and return to the beach.
Across the street from where the Phillies practice during off season, the street crews had made massive piles of downed trees and debris from the ocean. They had made great headway in the cleanup, but obviously it will be years before it returns to normal. We will be joining the cleanup effort, volunteering our time.